Review Summary: I listened to this and then after that iTunes played Wycliffe Gordon and I was more satisfied...
One of the more forgettable sub-genres or ‘fads’ of the last little while has been that of lo-fi or no-fi, or whatever the hell you want to call it. It isn’t even really a genre per se, but rather an aesthetic (I realize that all genre labels are purely aesthetic, but lets digress shall we?). It has spawned some truly good works, with the likes of No Age and Japandroids coming to mind. But certain publications, who shall remain nameless, seemed to hype up every young band who took a “raw” sound and through some noise on to it and said “voila!” It’s not even the sound itself that is the problem generally, the do it yourself aesthetic has been around for ages and it carries with it a certain quaintness to it. But when groups start doing it just for the sake of continuing trends, that’s when we have a problem. Enter Woods 2009 offering Songs of Shame, which in no uncertain terms, fits into the latter hipster trend following department. But that does not mean the album is without its merits.
When the opening song kicks in with a guitar “solo”– that is really just some person who can’t play guitar very well going nuts on the fret board– alarms are raised. But the camp fire sing along melodies that populate the rest of its concise run time makes up for it in spades. They’re vaguely familiar melodies that are easy to sing along to and are ultimately harmless, which is both a blessing and a curse. For this album balances between noisy ripping off and pleasant enough pop. Your own preferences will guide which side of the band you prefer, but for myself, “September With Pete” tries a little too hard to be “Spec Bop” if you catch my drift. But these are usually slight detours (though “September With Pete” is by far the longest track at nine minutes) and so the album is generally made up of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. The two-step of “Military Madness (Graham Nash)”, or the spritely “Rain On” keep the second half of the record afloat as boring strum along of “Born to Lose” segues into the inconsequential instrumental “Echo Lake”.
So we’ve talked about the good, the bad, but what about the ugly? Well the album never reaches that state. There’s just nothing overtly deplorable here, unlike some other albums of this overdone sub-genre. A number of ho-hum tracks for sure, but nothing that would drag this album below anything other than good. Gentle strumming, simplistic percussion and just a little bit of skronk not done all that well is what makes up the instrumentation. Essentially this is the exact album you would expect going into it. Some nice melodies, a few very good ones, and a lot of “so what?” Woods Songs of Shame is there to be listened to in small doses I feel. Over exposure may lead to hippieitis, but a healthy dose of Post-Nothing will soon take care of that. But then again nobody ever died from over exposure to some sunshine right?.... Oh wait.
